Viral Charlie Kirk portrait earns praise, death threats for faith-driven artist

A Mississippi artist with a million-strong following recently went viral for his portrait of Charlie Kirk – a piece prominently showcased during Kirk’s massive memorial event viewed by millions.

Samuel Ingram, known on social media as Sam Ryan, painted an image of Kirk with his hands pressed together in front of his face. The artist behind Sam Ryan Studios, Ryan’s portrait is suggestive of prayer or reflection.

Kirk’s expression in the painting is serious and contemplative, and Ryan incorporated prominent reds, blacks, whites and blues, evoking patriotic themes.

Speaking to Fox News Digital on Sunday – two days before what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday – Ryan said that he personally spoke with Kirk last year.

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At the time, Ryan’s painting of President Donald Trump after his July 13, 2024, assassination attempt was going viral. The Turning Point USA founder reached out to him soon after he saw the Trump painting and expressed an interest in buying a print.

“His DM said, ‘I love it, man. I need to get this for the studio. When are you doing a print of it?'” recalled Ryan. “And that was the last thing I heard from him.”

In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination at Utah Valley University, Ryan felt compelled to commemorate him.

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“I wanted to do him a service,” he said. “The best way I could was to memorialize him for everybody to see and add to his legacy, especially with the reference photo that I used from Dan Fleuette of Charlie praying.”

“I felt that was the perfect reference that represented him.”

Ryan said that he painted the portrait in 12 hours, overnight. He shared it with the world at 8 a.m. on Sept. 11 after a sleepless night.

“That was a way for me to show my respect to him and his family — to put that out there for him,” said Ryan.

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The tribute wasn’t without pushback. The artist said that he lost 44,000 followers on Instagram, and collectively, over 100,000 social media users unfollowed him across all his platforms, including Facebook and TikTok.

Ryan said that, even over a month after Kirk died, he still receives death threats on Instagram.

“All for painting somebody I had a personal connection with,” said Ryan. “It wasn’t really a political statement, even though I am conservative.”

“It was more of a personal sentiment for his family and something God’s given me the ability to do — to paint and do portraiture in the style that I do that attracts attention somehow.”

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But luckily, the support outweighed the hate, and Ryan’s work has attracted over a million like-minded conservatives and Christians.

“I gained over a million total followers across all my platforms… I think a couple hundred thousand per platform,” he said.

Ryan also traveled all the way from Mississippi to Arizona to attend Kirk’s memorial service on Sept. 21. He described the experience as being bittersweet — a career milestone, but one under tragic circumstances.

To Ryan, Kirk’s death is evocative of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ — a reflection, he said, of how those who speak truth often face persecution.

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“A lot of the time, people don’t want to hear the truth — they want to be comforted,” he said. “I think he shook a lot of demons that are hiding in the world out there, and they took him out because of that.”

 “Jesus, it only took twelve [disciples] for Him to spread the message — and Charlie had a lot more than twelve getting the word out. When you get all those eyeballs on you, there are a lot of crazy people in the audience that just hate you for spreading the message of the gospels.”

“Anything that makes people feel something is what inspires me, and I hope to just spread the good in the world and block out the bad.”

The faith-driven painter said that he hopes those who unfollowed him are able to see that Kirk was a “human being, and he didn’t deserve that.”

“Because to me, and what I know, he never said anything hateful, racist, like you’ve been seeing all these clips,” he said. “He never said anything that was downright wrong.”

“I would just like to tell them that he was a human being too,” added Ryan. “And I have a heart — that’s something a lot of people don’t have. They can’t get over their emotions over political sides.”

Ryan said that the painting will be put up in the Turning Point USA headquarters. Because of all the interest in the painting, he’ll be selling a small print personally signed by him from Oct. 17 to 19 on samryanstudio.com.

“About 20,000 people [are] on the wait list so far, and we’re going to have a limited number of limited-edition prints,” he said. “So it’ll be a first come, first served basis.” 

Ultimately, guided by faith, Ryan hopes his work turns others toward faith and goodness.

“Anything that makes people feel something is what inspires me, and I hope to just spread the good in the world and block out the bad,” he said.